In todays world, the truth is losing

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Richard Stengel, the State Department’s undersecretary for public diplomacy, bluntly states the problem that has been worrying him and should worry us all: “In a global information war, how does the truth win?”

The very idea that the truth won’t be triumphant would, until recently, have been heresy to Stengel, a former managing editor of Time magazine. But in the nearly three years since he joined the State Department, Stengel has seen the rise of what he calls a “post-truth” world, where the facts are sometimes overwhelmed by propaganda from Russia and the Islamic State.

“We like to think that truth has to battle itself out in the marketplace of ideas. Well, it may be losing in that marketplace today,” Stengel warned in an interview. “Simply having fact-based messaging is not sufficient to win the information war.”

Stengel poses an urgent question for journalists, technologists and, more broadly, everyone living in free societies or aspiring to do so. How do we protect the essential resource of democracy — the truth — from the toxin of lies that surrounds it? It’s like a virus or food poisoning. It needs to be controlled. But how?

Stengel argues that the U.S. government should sometimes protect citizens by exposing “weaponized information, false information” that is polluting the ecosystem. But ultimately, the defense of truth must be independent of a government that many people mistrust. “There are inherent dangers in having the government be the verifier of last resort,” he argues.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/in-todays-world-the-truth-is-losing/2016/11/29/3f685cd2-b680-11e6-b8df-600bd9d38a02_story.html?utm_term=.0453e6a2b3c6&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1

[mike_c]

1. this is a genuine problem....

I mean, it has always been the case that anyone with money or a printing press could disseminate fake news, or opinion as fact, or just plain fall victim to every logical fallacy imaginable. Truth has always been obfuscated to serve differing agendas.

The difference today is that social media in particular, but corporate media as well, have developed incredibly broad reach and deep penetration into the daily lives of most Americans, who consume their information but largely lack the critical thinking skills and the motivation to question the veracity of the barrage of low quality information that's dumped on them every day. Turns out that it's easy to make people believe utter, made up nonsense. Just post it online and share it to Facebook.

[Cha]

2. Yep. Wonder why? Could it be the fox truthers' brainwashing

is complete?

[world wide wally]

3. I don't think it helps to have the Supreme Court rule that lying about an opponent during a campaign

is perfectly acceptable or that there will be no fact checking during presidential debates. For God's sake, they fact check on fucking game shows!
Freedom of speech is one thing.. speaking lies is quite another.